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CTV News
8 hours ago
- General
- CTV News
Northern Ont. residents oppose plan to dump radioactive material near drinking water source
About 100 people attended a town hall in Nairn & Hyman Township to discuss plans to move radioactive material from Nipissing First Nation to Agnew Lake. About 100 people attended a town hall in Nairn and Hyman Township to discuss provincial plans to move radioactive material from Nipissing First Nation to Agnew Lake. The township hired a consultant to review the technical report, citing environmental and health concerns. Mayor Amy Mazey urged the province to reconsider, saying the plan isn't the best solution. Residents in Nairn and Hyman and surrounding communities met Monday to discuss concerns about a plan by the province to transfer radioactive material into the area. Concerns were first raised last summer after a local municipal councillor noticed newer back roads and inquired about the upgrades. Nairn and Hyman About 100 residents from Nairn and Hyman and surrounding communities met Monday to discuss a provincial plan to dump radioactive material into tailings area at Agnew Lake, 27 kilometres from the community's drinking water supply. (Angela Gemmill/CTV News) That's when the township discovered that the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Mines were planning to move 18,000 cubic metric tonnes of niobium radioactive materials from Nipissing First Nation to the tailings area at Agnew Lake. Agnew Lake is 27 kilometres from the township's drinking water. 'We felt we really hadn't been consulted,' Nairn and Hyman Mayor Amy Mazey told the crowd. 'We were told the 'naturally occurring radioactive material' was just like gravel.' Last September, the municipality asked the province for more specific information about the project, which was scheduled to begin this summer. 'This is not 'NORM '–naturally occurring radioactive material,' Mazey said. 'It contains hazardous heavy metals -- uranium, niobium, radium 226, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, silver and manganese.' — Nairn and Hyman Mayor Amy Mazey 'It contains hazardous heavy metals -- uranium, niobium, radium 226, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, silver and manganese.' In April, both ministries provided the township with a massive report filled with technical and scientific details. So the township hired environmental consultants Hutchinson Environmental Sciences Ltd. to interpret the report -- and determine what science was missing. That information was presented to residents on Monday, who were then asked for feedback and suggestions on what to do next. Mazey said there are eight studies missing from the report. 'The two most important are a cumulative risk assessment -- what's going to happen when you put uranium tailings on top and niobium tailings together,' she said. Nairn and Hyman Residents in Nairn and Hyman learned last summer that the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Mines were planning to move 18,000 cubic metric tonnes of niobium radioactive materials from Nipissing First Nation to the tailings area at Agnew Lake. (Angela Gemmill/CTV News) 'What will happen? And also a drainage study -- so where is the water going to go, how is it going to leech? All of those things that were outlined that should have been done already, we just haven't seen them.' Township CAO Belinda Ketchabaw said what it boils down to is that the province wants to put radioactive materials in a lake that's already struggling. '(Agnew Lake) site is already in crisis, and they want to bring in more radioactive material to 'fix' the site,' Ketchabaw said. 'It doesn't really add up to me. When the science isn't there, there's no trust. We need to trust what is best for our community.' Safe outcome Ketchabaw said they've learned that some of the niobium material will be taken to a Clean Harbors facility near Sarnia, made for hazardous waste. She said it raises the question that if the material is hazardous enough to be sent to this facility, shouldn't it all be sent there? 'Let's just bring it all there and have a safe outcome for everyone,' Ketchabaw said. Furthering distrust, Mazey said the two ministries often give the community contradictory information. 'It just raises a lot of red flags,' she said. 'I hope that the Ontario government listens to the residents and takes us seriously that this isn't an easy fix ... Just because this is the most convenient solution for the province, it doesn't mean that it's the best solution.' Margaret Lafromboise, who lives close to the Spanish River, said she's concerned about having 'an unsafe radioactive site increased in volume.' 'I think the most constructive and practical thing to do would be to see if the municipality could get financial help to hire a lawyer and initiate an injunction to stop the action immediately,' Lafromboise said. 'As a society, as a province, we are not taking good enough care of our environment, the water and I don't believe our current government is willing to take the action that is required.' Representatives from the provincial ministries were not invited to Monday's town hall. 'When they came to our first meeting, all they did was say 'this is safe,' 'this is gravel.' I don't want to hear that, I want science,' Ketchabaw said. Mazey said they've been told trucks will begin hauling the radioactive material from Nipissing First Nation to the Agnew Lake site in mid-August. 'I hope that we can stop them,' she said.
CBC
2 days ago
- General
- CBC
Questions remain ahead of plans to haul radioactive waste to northern Ontario town
The mayor of a small northern Ontario town says the community still has a lot of questions ahead of plans for the province to start hauling radioactive waste to an abandoned mine near the community. Last year the Township of Nairn and Hyman, better known as Nairn Centre, was made aware of plans from the province to haul radioactive niobium tailings from a former mill near Nipissing First Nation to the old Agnew Lake mine – a property Ontario's Ministry of Mines took over in the 1990s. Agnew Lake was a uranium mine and has already been holding radioactive waste for decades without incident. Nairn and Hyman Mayor Amy Mazey said the community of around 400 people wants eight scientific studies about the risks associated with hauling niobium to the mine to be done before the trucks start rolling. "When we put this niobium and uranium together, what's going to happen?" she asked. Mazey said the Agnew Lake mine is located around 27 kilometres from the township's drinking water plant on the Spanish River. "There aren't many people that live around where it will be deposited, unlike for Nipissing First Nation. But it isn't far from our drinking water," she said. "This is stuff that's going to be around for a long time. There's cadmium, arsenic, selenium, silver, manganese, it's toxic. It's not good for anyone. We don't want to drink it." Despite ongoing concerns from local residents, Mazey said the province is scheduled to start trucking over the niobium waste from Nipissing First Nation in August. "It feels like this was really being snuck into our community," she said. "It's a hard no from many people and other people, it's like 'Let's get answers to our questions.' And these answers, you know, we just feel we're getting them just before they're about to start trucking." In an email to CBC News, Ontario's Ministry of Transportation – which is responsible for hauling the radioactive waste – said it "continues to work with Nipissing First Nation, the Ministry of Energy and Mines, as well as other key stakeholders to complete this project and relocate the remaining niobium rock tailings from First Nation and Ministry lands." The ministry did not provide additional details about timelines to start that relocation work.
